LOS ANGELES (AP) — Authorities have identified two of the three women killed when the driver of a minivan crashed outside a Los Angeles metro station this week.
The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner identified the women as Teodora Villalobos, 57, and Maria Peck, 73. Both were killed on the sidewalk Tuesday by blunt force injuries, the medical examiner's office said.
Authorities did not immediately release the identity of the third victim, pending the notification of family, the medical examiner's office said in an email on Thursday.
Peck and Villalobos were food vendors in Los Angeles' North Hollywood neighborhood who were killed when the minivan plowed into a busy intersection during the height of the evening commute. Friends and family members built a memorial to the women, who were widely known for selling hot dogs and other street food, by leaving flower bouquets, notes, photos and candles on the sidewalk where they were struck.
Police arrested the driver, 61-year-old Ihor Demianenko, for investigation of driving under the influence and three counts of murder. His bail was set at $6 million. It was not immediately known when he would appear in court.
Melissa Villalobos told KABC-TV that her mother worked hard and tried to help those in her community.
“When she sold here, if people didn't have money to pay for the food, she would still give food to those who didn't have anything,” she said.
Peck worked as a vendor for more than a decade six days a week, even on holidays, according to a GoFundMe page set up to support her family. The page said Peck found joy in being part of the community and didn't want to scale back her hours even as she aged.
A police officer stands at the scene of a vehicle crash, involving multiple fatalities, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026, in the North Hollywood section of Los Angeles. (AP Photo/David Swanson)
People gather near a cordoned off area at the scene of a vehicle crash, involving multiple fatalities, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026, in the North Hollywood section of Los Angeles. (AP Photo/David Swanson)
Debris lies at the scene of a vehicle crash, involving multiple fatalities, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026, in the North Hollywood section of Los Angeles. (AP Photo/David Swanson)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Thursday heaped praise on Mississippi's Sen.-elect Scott Colom for courting some of his hardcore MAGA supporters in the final days of the midterm election campaign, a rare example of the Republican president showing admiration for a Democrat.
When the president traveled to Corinth, Mississippi, last month to campaign for incumbent Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, Trump denigrated Colom as a “Marxist radical," a “fake” and a “shameless phony who pretends to be a moderate."
But on Thursday, during an appearance on Stephen A. Smith's “Straight Shooter” podcast, Trump acknowledged that Colom demonstrated chutzpah by showing up to the Trump rally to mingle with some of the Republican president's staunchest “Make America Great Again” supporters.
“I heard it the other day, where I had a rally there, and we had lines that went 10 miles long, and he campaigned on that line, telling everybody on the line what a good job he did,” Trump said of Colom, a 43-year-old local prosecutor who capitalized on the electorate's discontent with the economy in his successful underdog campaign. “I give him a lot of credit for that.”
Colom had walked along the lineup of Trump supporters waiting to get into the Corinth rally, introducing himself and asking about their concerns.
The move gained widespread media attention, stealing the spotlight from Trump's barnstorming in Mississippi, a state Republicans had expected to easily win.
It also tracked with Colom's strategy throughout the campaign of criticizing Trump’s policies — especially the Iran war that drove up gas prices and tariffs that caused headaches for Mississippi farmers — without taking personal jabs at the president or people who voted for him. Colom had sought to portray Hyde-Smith as a nonentity in Washington, while vowing that he would look out for the interests of people in his state.
The Associated Press called the tight race in Colom’s favor on Wednesday after local officials spent several days processing absentee and provisional ballots, which are called affidavit ballots in Mississippi.
With the win, Colom will become the state's first Black U.S. senator since post-Civil War Reconstruction.
Mississippi Democratic Senate candidate Scott Colom gestures at an election event in Jackson, Miss., Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ellen Schmidt)
